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Time again for STAR WARS WEEKLY, the SYFY WIRE series that rounds up the most important news of the week from a galaxy far, far away. Think of us as your own personal Star Wars Holocron.

MORE MANADALORIAN REVEALED

According to The Star Wars Show, Jon Favreau is the internet’s number one source for news on The Mandalorian and it’s hard to argue with that. Over the last week, the showrunner has dropped two tantalizing bits of imagery.

Hood is a character from The Empire Strikes Back… actually, scratch that. Wilrow Hood is a background character in The Empire Strikes Back that has developed a bizarre cult following. Why? Well, he was holding an ice-cream maker, as he evacuated Cloud City. This is that ice cream maker.

Is this simply an Easter egg? Or a promise of more Wilrow Hood action? We won’t know until the show airs.

The second image is, somehow, an even deeper cut:

This is a real-life version of the weapon Boba Fett was introduced with — in the Star Wars Holiday Special. We’re reasonably certain we saw it strapped to the back of the titular Mandalorian, so there’s every chance we’ll see this weapon in action for the show, which may well premiere sometime next year.

A LOOSER EPISODE IX

Oscar Isaac did an interview with Indiewire and talked about a few things. First, he’s taking a year-long vacation from movie-making once he’s completed Star Wars: Episode IX, which is bad news for movie fans. Even in the last year, his turn in Annihilation opposite fellow Star Wars alum Natalie Portman was nothing short of stunning.

The bigger, more relevant news to Star Wars fans is that Isaac is talking about how they’ve been given a bit of a looser feel on the set of Episode IX.

"The way they’ve been shooting it right now is looser than it’s been for the last two times," Isaac said. "It does feel like a relief to get on set and feel like, 'Oh, we can try things.' It’s a testament to J.J. [Abrams] coming back and feeling confident. There’s less pressure for it to be right. We just want to make a good movie and have a really good time while doing it.”

And that should be music to everyone’s ears.

RICHARD E. GRANT TALKS EPISODE IX

The role Richard E. Grant is playing in the new Star Wars film is still a complete mystery. Will he be a good guy or a bad guy? Something in between, like Benicio Del Toro’s DJ? We have no idea, but he did give Yahoo a joking tease about it in a recent interview.

After talking about his relationship to Star Wars from the very beginning, he mouths a response to the question about what he’ll be doing in Episode IX. If anyone can read lips, you can watch the interview here.

NYCC’S STAR WARS PUBLISHING PANEL

If you wanted to watch the entirety of Lucasfilm’s publishing panel at New York Comic Con, it’s been made available for all to see:

It’s important to note that author Chuck Wendig’s participation here was rendered moot just a few days later. We wrote about that debacle here. And there's new evidence that bots played a huge role in the swell of abuse aimed at Wendig, so it's a still-developing story.

FRODO ON RESISTANCE

Elijah Wood is joining the cast of Star Wars Resistance, at least for one episode. The renowned star of Lord of the Rings is playing a pilot named Rucklin.